We all know Peter, right? One of the 12 disciples. The brother of Andrew. Part of Jesus’ inner circle. His ride or die.
Until, you know, he wasn’t.
A lot of us think of Peter and simply remember the guy who denied Christ. The one whose life caved in on him so bad that he thought it was all over.
Honestly, if Peter wasn’t who he was, I don’t think the denial of Christ would be as big of a deal as it was.
What do I mean?
Peter was one of, if not, the leader of the of the 12 disciples. Despite this, I don’t think that its his role which lead to his denial of Jesus being so prominent.
Peter was like a lot of us “new Christians”. We discover God and feel renewed and reborn. We have decided that everything we do is for the Lord and have publicly claimed Him. “I will never let you down!” Peter was the type to act on impulse, and he loved to declare his love for the Lord so publicly.
Even with all this, though, Peter’s failure probably wouldn’t have looked so bad if not for his timing. Peter denied Jesus while Jesus was on His way to Cavalry to die for Peter – and for all of us.
It was Peter who had said just hours earlier, ‘Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will’, in Matthew 26:33. It was at this point that Jesus prophesised that Peter’s entire being would be completely shaken. You see at this point, Peter lived for Jesus and his mission. That was all he cared about. So, when Jesus answered ‘this very night, before the cock crows, you will disown me three times’, I’m sure Peter was completely and entirely confused.
I want to clarify, I don’t think there was anything wrong with Peter’s intention. His promise was a good one. His vow of faithfulness was solid. It happens. We have good spiritual intentions, we make well-meaning spiritual promises, we vow great spiritual vows, only to find that we can’t carry them out.
But why?
Well, it may be that, like Peter, we’re trying to pull off spiritual goals through “will-power” or “self-confidence”. Peter just knew that he couldn’t and wouldn’t fail. He was confident. But that confidence was misplaced.
One of my favourite verses is 1 Corinthians 10:12. “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” I feel like there’s so many interpretations and areas where this can be applied, and I might break it down later, but this definitely would be one.
Let’s be honest, sometimes we underestimate how weak our flesh is.
Matthew 26:41.‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’
If we’re gonna say that Peter overestimated his courage, then we’ve also got to say that he underestimated the weakness of his flesh and the power of temptation.
Right after Jesus’ prophecy about Peter, he took Peter, James and John into the Garden of Gethsemane and asked them to pray (verse 36). But what happened? They all fell asleep. Going back to verse 41, see how Jesus warned Peter of the ease with which we can fall into a space of spiritual inertia.
I won’t lie, I have strong memories of these kind of experiences. I don’t know what it was. As a kid, whenever it came time to pray, suddenly I’ll start getting tired, yawning midway and basically resting with my eyes closed. It’d be midday and the way I’d be yawning was just different. You see sometimes we overate ourselves. Sometimes we forget that we are flesh and bones too.
I even think to those men and women of God who fast for weeks and months at a time with no food to sustain them. To us it may feel like an impossible task. Like won’t their body start to break down? But they’re not relying on their body or flesh to keep them going. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
If we keep falling, maybe we need to reconsider what we’re putting our faith in.
My Sunday Skl 